The present invention relates to a portable communication device, and more particularly to a portable communication device that is capable of managing personal information regarding a plurality of individuals.
Referring to FIG. 8, there is shown a conventional portable communication device, typically a portable telephone set, which comprises an antenna section 21 for transmitting/receiving a radio wave, a radio section 22 for transmitting/receiving a radio signal, a voice processing section 23 for processing a voice signal, a microphone section 24 for inputting a voice, a speaker section 25 for outputting a voice, a central control unit 26 for controlling the entire portable communication device, an operation section 27 having a button, a switch, and so on, arranged so as to input an operation signal from a user, a display section 28 for performing displaying and a memory section 29 for storing data.
The operation of the conventional portable communication device constructed in the above-noted manner will now be described. When indenting to input data regarding a telephone number, an address book or the like or initial setting regarding a function at the time of starting to the memory section 29, a user inputs data to be stored to the memory section 29 from the operation section 27. The data input from the operation section 27 is displayed on the display section 28. After having confirmed the display, the user presses the button for storing the data in the memory section 29 from the operation section 27 and then the central control unit 26 causes the memory section 29 to store the input data. When data is to be added to the memory section 29, data addition can be continued by repeating the above-noted operation until there are no more vacant areas in the memory section 29.
When the data stored in the memory section 29 is to be read or changed, the data to be read is specified, the central control unit 26 reads the data from the memory section 29, the read data is displayed on the display section 28 and then this data is changed by the operation section 27 while confirming the display on the display section 28. The user can confirm and change the data stored at the time of initial setting by performing the same operation. The data stored in the memory section 29 is backed up so as to be prevented from being erased even when power is turned OFF. By turning ON power again for the portable communication device, a mode is changed to the initial setting of the last input data.
Referring to JP-A-21884/1994, there is disclosed a radio communication device comprising a master machine connected to a cable channel and a slave machine communicated with the master machine by radio. In this case, when the slave machine is used by a plurality of individuals, memory information including a telephone number, initial setting, and so on, input for each user, is divided into blocks and stored and managed en block in the storage memory of the master machine, and by transferring this information from the master machine to the slave machine so as to change the content of the memory information of the slave machine, memory information including a telephone number, initial setting, and so on, can be set for the slave machine.
However, there were problems inherent in such a conventional portable communication device. One problem is that when one device is used by a plurality of individuals, since there is no storage section provided for managing information for each user and only one personal number to be transmitted to a base station is allocated to one device, the base station cannot identify the user when the device is used by the plurality of individuals. Consequently, a telephone directory or a call tariff cannot be managed on a personal basis.
Another problem is that since memory information including a telephone number, initial setting, and so on, for each user is set only in the master machine, such information cannot be stored or managed by the slave machine. Consequently, the memory information including a telephone number, initial setting, and so on, for each user must be transferred from the master machine to the slave machine, and this operation is troublesome.